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Tuesday, 18 December 2012

Former Test captain Nasser Hussain believes the ruthless approach which England applied after losing the first Test match in Ahmedabad helped them clinch a historic 2-1 series in India.

"The first Test in Ahmedabad may
have seen England beaten heavily but the second innings there proved a
turning point both in this series and in the future of this team.
Without it things could look very different now," Hussain wrote in his
column for the Daily Mail.

"But when Alastair Cook scored a big hundred in a losing cause in Ahmedabad in that second innings things changed," he added.

"It was the moment the captain
said to his team: 'Hang on, there are no demons here. The ball is not
spinning both ways. If we show some character, application and belief we
can do this.' And since then the transformation has been astonishing,"
he further wrote.

Hussain added: "Everything England
has done since then has been right. And their business has been
conducted in a quite ruthless manner. There has been no dilly-dallying,
no worrying about reputations. This has been anything but a closed
shop."

"Tim Bresnan has been a very good cricketer for England but as soon as Cook and Andy Flower realised they had made a mistake in not picking Monty Panesar for the first Test the Yorkshireman was gone," he further wrote.

"Stuart Broad was England's
vice-captain and one of the leading wicket-takers in world cricket in
2012 but when he had two poor Tests and England knew they had to get a
fit-again Steven Finn in the side, Broad was also gone," he added

"England basically had to nail everything to win this series after going one down and they did it," he further said. (ANI)